Plantation police officers responded at about 5:39 p.m. Monday to A World of Discovery Academy, a preschool located west of Fort Lauderdale, after a call reporting a deceased child. The Plantation Fire Department confirmed the child was dead at the scene.
“Plantation police detectives responded to the scene, and an investigation into the death is underway,” the Plantation Police Department said in a statement. The department did not release identifying information about the child.
Leslie Novoa, the owner of A World of Discovery Academy, said she was the person who called 911. She told CBS News Miami that the child’s father had arrived at the school to pick up his child and realized in the parking lot that he had never dropped the child off — that the child had been left in the backseat of the vehicle while the father was at work.
“Unfortunately, when he arrived at school, he realized the situation,” Novoa said. She described the family as having been enrolled at the school for six years. “I tried to help the daddy. He’s part of a wonderful family. They have been with us the past six years. They are great parents.”
The National Safety Council said the death is one of at least nine hot-car child fatalities recorded nationwide in 2026. The council reported 31 such deaths in 2025. On average, 37 children under age 15 die from heat stroke in vehicles each year, the council said.
The nonprofit Kids and Car Safety notes that in half of hot-car death situations, the person responsible unknowingly left the child in the vehicle. “In most situations, this happens to loving, caring and protective parents,” the organization says on its website.